re: The Battle of Lookout Mountain was waged on this day 160 years ago...

quote:

---

Looking like time for another civil war.

---

quote:

---

Grant epitomizes the American dream as far as I'm concerned. He's a man of blue collar, middle class upbringing who absolutely fails at everything in life aside from marriage prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. When Lincoln was elected in November 1860, he was a book keeper working for his younger brother at their father's store. Eight years later he himself would be getting elected President of the United States.

Dude loses all of his money thanks to the Bernie Madoff of his day and survives on other peoples' charity before finding out he's dying of throat cancer. Worried that he will leave his family destitute and homeless upon his death, he embarked on a race against time to write and publish his memoirs, sometimes writing more than 10,000 words in a single day. He finished writing them quite literally one week before his death. When they were finally published, they were among the best selling works of American literature of the 19th century, guaranteeing that his family would not have to want for anything for the remainder of their lives.

What's crazy about the man's memoirs is how so well-written they are. There were accusations from some critics that Mark Twain must have ghostwritten them because of how eloquent and well put together the text as. However, Twain swore until his dying day that all he did was publish and never once polished or re-wrote Grant's words.

---